Miesha Tate says defending her title is more important than making movies

Priorities. Miesha Tate has them and they begin and end with that shiny gold thing on her shoulder.

The UFC women’s bantamweight champion has been offered a ton of opportunities in a multitude of other mediums recently, but she’s turned almost all of them down, Tate said at a recent media day. Her first title defense against Amanda Nunes at UFC 200 on July 9 is at the top of her list of importance.

“The thing is that you have to keep your eye on the task at hand and the prize at hand,” Tate said. “What do you really want? That’s the question I have to ask myself. What do I really want? And to me the most important thing is to defend my belt. It’s not making movies, it’s not anything else. If those things can fall into place at a time when it makes sense, great. But in the middle of my training camp or anything that’s gonna affect that at all? You’ve just gotta tell them no. If those opportunities are there now, they’ll surely be there after I defend the belt successfully again. That’s the way I kind of look at it.”

Some of that might be a veiled shot at former champion — and Tate rival — Ronda Rousey, who is now taking time off after losing the belt to Holly Holm at UFC 193 back in November. More than a few people have said that Rousey was not at full strength going into that fight because of all the other obligations — namely Hollywood — that she has.

Tate, from what she’s saying, doesn’t want to make the same mistake. “Cupcake” said she has become incredibly protective over her belt, which she earned by beating Holm by fifth-round submission at